Blind Tasting: The Relationship Bewtween pH and the Color of Red Wine

Blind tasting is no easy feat and you’d be hard pressed to find a reference that is willing to share all of the secrets to becoming a great blind taster. After all, how are Somms supposed to drop some knowledge on you about the art if you already know the tricks? Well here is a fun one. The color of red wine is dependent on several factors but for the purpose of this post, let’s examine how pH figures into the equation. The more acidic a wine, the more ruby and garnet it will look. The more basic (or less acidic) the more blue and purple the wine will appear. How acidic a wine is depends on the ripeness of the grapes used in the fermentation. Warmer regions produce riper grapes and thus more sugar and less acid so the resulting wines will tend to be more blue and purple in color, whereas colder regions are less ripe and more acidic (less sugar) leading to wines that are red, ruby, and/or more garnet.